Though unbeaten, Blue Devils used break to become sharper

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The Calais boys basketball team had considerable down time between its Dec. 19 win against Woodland and Monday’s 79-58 victory at Washington Academy of East Machias.

Suffice to say the Blue Devils look like they took full advantage of the break in the action.

Calais remained unbeaten and atop the Eastern Maine Class C rankings – where coach Ed Leeman’s club has sat for the last 21/2 seasons – with a convincing win over the Raiders. But the fruits of that midseason break from regular-season action first came to the forefront several days earlier in its only other game since Christmas at Madawaska.

The two-time defending Class C state champions earned a 60-point victory in that contest, but it wasn’t so much the margin of victory as the quality of the play that most impressed the coach.

“We’re coming,” said Leeman. “I hate to use the Madawaska game as a kind of marker because of the score, but we played very well against Madawaska. The score was one-sided, but the kids finally came to play defense like we like to see them play defense, and we moved the ball pretty well.

“That was a good game for us, and maybe that was something we can build on, and I’m hoping this game [against Washington Academy] is something we can build on, because I thought we played pretty well.”

Calais hasn’t been tested since rallying for a 62-56 opening-night victory at Lee Academy, and Monday night’s win pushed the Blue Devils to 7-0 this season and 51-0 since the start of the 2005-06 campaign.

But this year’s team has a slightly different feel from its immediate predecessors, particularly with two-time All-Maine choice Brandon Tomah now playing postgraduate basketball at Lee.

“I think people have seen us over the last couple of years as kind of a racehorse basketball team but disciplined. It’s not the old Washington County style. I hate to label us that way because I don’t think we’re that style at all,” Leeman said.

“But this year we’re probably a little slower afoot than we have been, so we just need to know which teams we want to run against and which teams we want to go with more half-court sets against.”

Either strategy has worked. The Blue Devils are averaging 79.7 points per game this season while allowing just 46.9 points per outing.

Monday’s win proved Calais is just as dangerous in the half-court set as it is on the fast break. The Blue Devils shot better than 50 percent from the field, with guards Sam Bell and Jordan Leeman advancing the ball into the lane for their own shots or to set up center Cal Shorey and forwards Rod Tirrell and Cam Shorey.

“When you’re getting better looks, you’re scoring more often on your possessions,” said Leeman. “I’d bet we scored on 50 percent of our possessions [against WA] or close to it, so we just want to make sure we get good looks.”

Bell had the best night of all, making 10 of 16 tries from the field en route to a game-high 23 points. That was the sixth time in seven games that Bell – the team’s leading scorer at 14.9 points per game – has finished in double figures.

“Sam’s our go-to guy, he needs to be our leader,” said Leeman.

Plourde takes Rockland post

Brian Plourde’s a busy coach these days, handling both the Rockland High seventh-grade girls and junior varsity teams this winter.

He’s also the school’s girls varsity soccer coach in the fall, and next spring he’ll add an additional responsibility, having recently been named Rockland’s varsity baseball coach.

Plourde replaces Richie Oliver, who coached the Tigers for the last six years, including last spring when Rockland finished 10-6 and advanced to the Eastern Maine Class B playoffs.

Oliver resigned last August in order to watch his son Wade continue his baseball career at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish. Wade Oliver, a former Rockland standout, is a junior outfielder with the Monks.

Plourde last served as a head baseball coach at the University of Maine-Presque Isle during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Before that he was instrumental in the development of the Babe Ruth baseball program in Houlton.

He’ll be joined on the Rockland baseball staff by assistant coach Mike Tolman.

“Rockland has had a strong baseball tradition,” said Plourde, also a former athletic director at Rockland. “The Little League program has been strong, and the Babe Ruth program here has been solid for years.

“Richie has done a good job with the high school program, and hopefully we can continue that tradition.”

JB’s Sanford reaches milestone

Jeff Sanford, a senior at John Bapst of Bangor, has become the first wrestler in school history to earn 100 victories.

Sanford achieved the milestone during a four-team meet Saturday at Caribou.

The Crusader standout is competing in the 171-pound weight class this winter. Last season, he placed fourth in both the Class C state and Eastern Maine championship meets at 160 pounds and third at the 2007 Penobscot Valley Conference championships.

Sanford also is an all-conference soccer player who helped lead John Bapst to the 2006 Eastern Maine Class B championship.

Spencer’s 100th sparks Lions

Travis Spencer of Belfast High, a junior who already has won two Class B state wrestling championships, scored his 100th career victory en route to winning the 189-pound title of the Redskin Invitational at Sanford High School last weekend.

Spencer earned win No. 100 in the semifinals, then pinned Alex Holland of Massabesic of Waterboro in 3:13 of the championship match.

With that win, he swept the 189-pound titles at three of the state’s most prestigious early-season meets – the Redskin Invitational, the Noble Invitational and the McDonald’s Invitational at Rumford.

Spencer’s victory at Sanford helped Belfast finish sixth in a field of 21 teams and second only to Massabesic among Maine schools. Massabesic, the 2007 Class A state champion, finished fourth in the meet won by Timberlane Regional High School of Plaistow, N.H.

Other top performers for the Lions at Sanford were Kote Aldus, who dropped a narrow 6-4 decision to three-time Class A state champion Jon Hussey of Marshwood of South Berwick in a highly anticipated 160-pound final; Zach Shellabarger, second at 145, Jimmy Spencer, third at 140; Mike Rolerson, fourth at 171; Josh Robbins, sixth at 119; and Kornealius Wood, sixth at 135.

Belfast finished with 125.5 points, just ahead of seventh-place Camden Hills of Rockport. Camden Hills got a second-place finish from Murphy McGowan at 130, thirds from Jack Simpkins at 135 and Jacob Berry at 152, and sixths from Jacob Powers at 125 and Allen Muir at 285.

Another Windjammer, senior Kristi Pearse, earned career wrestling victory No. 100 recently.

Pearse may be just the second schoolgirl wrestler in state history to reach the milestone, following Deanna Rix of Marshwood of South Berwick, who reached the milestone in 2005.

A two-time state Class B runner-up at 103 pounds for the Windjammers, Pearse earned her 100th victory during the recent Noble Invitational tournament.

eclark@bangordailynews.net

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